Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/590181
8 6 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | N o v - D e c 2 015 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m Livermore ~ at the ~ Crossroads South Livermore Plan creates both positive and negative effects BY LAURA NESS Livermore Valley grapes are still priced low, despite rising bottle prices for acclaimed Livermore wines. Photo: Barbara Taylor Reynolds/Tri Valley Conservancy Collection he Livermore Valley is one of California's oldest premium wine regions, and pretty much anyone who knows the state's wine histo- ry understands the important contributions of two Liver- more families: The Wentes celebrated 132 years of continual family- owned operation in 2015. They are largely responsible for making Chardonnay the most widely planted and popular white wine grape in the West. The Concannons also are celebrating 132 years of fam- ily winemaking, and they are credited with saving Napa Valley's Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards after the phylloxera epidemic of the 1970s. Using heat-treated cuttings propa- gated from a single Cabernet vine that founder James Con- cannon had imported from Chateau Margaux in 1893, the Concannon clones of Caber- net (7, 8 and 11) became the most widely proliferated in the West. One thing that most peo- ple outside the region might not know is how unusually agricultural this land remains, smack in the fray of the San Francisco Bay area. While the rich farms and orchards that preceded the advent of Silicon Valley succumbed to concrete and asphalt, forever replaced by megamalls, high rises and corporate towers of power, the forward-thinking planners of the Livermore Val- ley hit "pause" on the devel- opment frenzy button back in the 1990s. They stepped back and realized a profound lesson from what befell the Miras- sous in San Jose: You can sell your precious vineyard land at a premium to developers, pocket the dough and go on your merry way. But at what ultimate price? What is left for your heirs? The Wente family understood this, hav- ing been major landowners in